Randy Rhoads's guitar strings: the Quiet Riot + Ozzy rig, sourced
Documented string gauges and tunings Randy Rhoads used with Quiet Riot and Ozzy Osbourne's solo band on his Jackson Concorde and Karl Sandoval polka-dot Flying V instruments. With citations.
Ozzy Osbourne / Quiet Riot · written with AI help · updated
Randy Rhoads played GHS Boomers in light gauges, commonly cited around .010 (some sources say .009 or .011; the specific set is documented variably). His primary instruments were the white Jackson Rhoads Concorde (a sharkfin-shaped V he designed with Grover Jackson, the design started in late 1980 and the white #1 delivered in early 1981) and the Karl Sandoval polka-dot Flying V from the early Ozzy era. Rhoads died in a small-plane crash in March 1982 at age 25; his three studio records (one with Quiet Riot, two with Ozzy) are foundational to the early-1980s neoclassical-metal lineage.
Who Randy Rhoads was
Randall William "Randy" Rhoads (December 6, 1956, Santa Monica, California, March 19, 1982, Leesburg, Florida, plane accident) was the founding lead guitarist of Quiet Riot (1973-1979) and Ozzy Osbourne's solo band (1979-1982). His two studio records with Ozzy, Blizzard of Ozz (1980) and Diary of a Madman (1981), are foundational to the early-1980s neoclassical-metal lineage and remain among the most-cited metal-lead-guitar records of the era.
The Jackson Rhoads Concorde V, designed in collaboration with Grover Jackson and continuously produced by Jackson Guitars as a signature line, is one of the most-recognizable metal-guitar shapes in popular music. Rhoads was studying classical guitar formally at the time of his death; the integration of classical study into hard-rock-and-metal lead vocabulary is the foundational stylistic contribution that puts him in the lineage that produced Yngwie Malmsteen, Marty Friedman, and Jason Becker.
What he played
GHS Boomers light-gauge strings, commonly cited around .010, on his two primary instruments: the Karl Sandoval polka-dot Flying V (1979, black with white polka dots, played live across the early Ozzy era) and the white Jackson Rhoads Concorde (designed with Grover Jackson in late 1980, the white #1 delivered early 1981, played the Diary of a Madman tour). A second Jackson Concorde (the black MKII) was delivered only months before his death. A Les Paul Custom is generally credited as his main Blizzard of Ozz studio guitar.
His signal chain into Marshall tube amps (vintage 100-watt Plexi-era heads) at high saturation drove the lead tone. He used an MXR Distortion + and an MXR 10-band EQ as his primary boost-and-shape pedals; the boost-into-Marshall combination is the canonical Rhoads-era lead-tone formula.
Standard E tuning on most material; selected songs in Eb standard.
Boomers GBL Nickel-Plated Steel (.010–.046)
Why this one: GHS Boomers is Rhoads's documented brand; the exact vintage gauge is cited variably across sources (.009 to .011), but .010-.046 is the most commonly cited and GHS's standard nickel-wound Boomers set today.
Why this fits the rig
The light set into Marshall tube saturation produces a vocal-quality lead tone with low picking effort, suiting the fluid arpeggio-and-scale-sequence vocabulary that characterizes the Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman leads. The asymmetric Jackson V shape sat more comfortably on his strapped or seated playing posture than a standard Gibson V, which is part of why he commissioned the Concorde design with Grover Jackson in the first place.
His classical study influences the lead vocabulary directly: the harmonic-minor and Phrygian-dominant scales, the arpeggio sequences on 'Mr. Crowley' and the 'Diary of a Madman' middle section, the formal three-section structure of the title track from Diary of a Madman. These are choices that come out of classical training, applied through a Marshall-saturated metal signal chain.
If you want this rig
A Jackson Rhoads V production model (in continuous production since the early 1980s) and a light-gauge nickel set in standard E or Eb tuning, into a Marshall-style tube amp with a clean boost in front, gets you in the territory.